NOBLE

MEMBERS OF THE CORPORATION MEETING

AT NOBLE

FEBRUARY 16, 2006

 

PRESENT:  Twenty-one libraries were represented at the meeting, attendance sheet attached.

 

CALL TO ORDER: Sue Koronowski called the meeting to order at 10:15.  Introductions were done.

 

APROVAL OF MINUTES:  Ruth Urell made a motion to approve the Minutes from the November 10th  meeting.  Deborah Abraham seconded the motion.  The motion passed unanimously.

 

TREASURER’S REPORT: Mary Rose Quinn reported that spending is on target. Barbara Lachance  made a motion to approve the treasurer’s report.  Nadine Mitchell seconded the motion.  The motion passed unanimously.

 

MANAGERS’ REPORT:

Ron Gagnon –

·         Reported a transformer outside our office blew late yesterday afternoon.  Our backup UPS stayed on for two hours.  Power was restored around 11:00 p.m.

·         Our new ISP, UMass, is in place as well as a new system server installed.  The remaining infrastructure that will be addressed is upgrading our web and mail servers.

·         Filed our Form 470 for second round of E-Rate funding.  Ron was contacted by a vendor for our cell phone service, but cost was not better.  Also contacted by a vendor for our data lines, but never received a proposal.  Reimbursements are now discounted off our bills.

·         Ron and Elizabeth continue to participate in Library Leadership Massachusetts group, initiated at last summer’s Institute.  They attended a meeting in Groton and NOBLE hosts the “Our Future” blog. 

·         Ron and Elizabeth attended Ways and Means Day at the State House.  Ron is on the MLA Legislative Committee and prepared the mailings for Legislative Day in early April, as well as participated in interviews for a library lobbyist.  MLA is seeking Networks and Regions to become Partner Members, NOBLE joined as a Partner Member.

·         Several libraries have expressed interest in having wireless connections.  Ron is getting a proposal from Atrion to provide to libraries.  Initial cost is under $10,000, with the Bluesocket security device being a sizable part of the costs, but necessary to protect the network.  On-going costs under $2,000.

·         NOBLE staff hosted Welcome sessions for new directors, Roger Brisson and Brian Courtemanche, at Gloucester and Endicott respectively, as well as new staff from Northern Essex.

·         Ron and ILL Librarian, Marilyn Graves, are on NMRLS Delivery Committee and attended a meeting last week at the sort site.

·         PLA National Conference will be held March 21-25, at Hynes Convention Center in Boston and NOBLE staff will be attending.

·         Elizabeth will be attending Computer in Libraries, March 22-24, in Washington D.C.

·         Ron and Elizabeth will attend Innovative Users’ Group Meeting in May.  Innovative is also planning a Consortia Meeting in the fall.

·         Network Administrators met twice since last Members meeting in November.  Martha attended the meeting at CW/MARS and talked about wireless with Bluesocket, since NOBLE received an MBLC grant subsidy for initial units as a pilot project.

·         NOBLE is participating in the Digital Commonwealth.  This is a statewide project the Boston Public Library received a grant to coordinate the various digital repository projects going on in the state.  BPL selected Digitool by Ex Libris for their repository.  Elizabeth was nominated to be on the Digital Commonwealth Executive Board.  There is a meeting on March 30th at Worcester Public Library that Ron and Elizabeth will attend.

·         Our presentation equipment has been upgraded.  In the Meeting Room a new ceiling-mounted projector and sound system were installed.  In the Training Room our existing projector was ceiling mounted and a new screen was installed. ADTECH Systems did the work.  The work had been approved by Executive Board, with funding from capital account.

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February 16, 2006

 

Elizabeth Thomsen –

·         Reported on the meeting Keeping It All Together: Media Parts and Pieces.  Aspects of circulation, tech services, and holds were discussed.  Working on improved methods of inputting and identifying these multi-part items.  Some follow up was done with the Circ Roundtables.

·         Reported on Getting What They Want: Holds, Virtual Catalog, and ILL Meeting.  NOBLE fills over 286,000 holds each year.  A small percentage may never be filled if left unassisted.  The system will keep an item on hold indefinitely unless some action is taken on that item.  Libraries can use Virtual Catalog and Regional ILL services to get an item sooner if not available in NOBLE catalog.  There are over 400 holds in the system from 2000-2004.  Elizabeth did overhead presentation of a flow chart of “Life Cycle of a Hold” which had been prepared by Martha.  It depicted where problems can arise and how a hold gets trapped in the system.  This issue needs to addressed and Elizabeth encouraged libraries to review their “Old Holds Report” on a regular basis.  Discussion continued. 

 

Sharon Gilley pointed out when a patron places a hold from home the system doesn’t automatically page the item from the library the patron wants to pick it up at.  Elizabeth stated that is an enhancement in Release 2005. 

 

Gerri Guyote pointed out holds don’t show pick up location.  NOBLE staff will look into that.

 

There was a brief interruption in the meeting due to electric company having to turn off power to finish work on transformer.

 

·         Demos were held at NOBLE on federated search products.  Serials Solutions demonstrated their Central Search product and Innovative demonstrated MetaFind.  Ron, Elizabeth, and Martha are meeting with IndexData to obtain information on their product.

·         Collection Management reports are on schedule, will be sortable next week.  The Collection Management Team is working on ways to get default data on the forms.  There is a Collection Management Meeting on April 25th.   

·         On March 29th there is an Imaging Roundtable session.

 

Martha Driscoll –

·         New Sun Micro Millennium and training servers were installed in January.  The system came up on the original release.  Release 2005 is on our training system and will be implemented once some issues are resolved.

·         Our ISP changeover to UMass was in January as well.  There were some unexpected issues that caused slowness.  Our current router could not handle the traffic; therefore a new router was purchased.  A TLS circuit was installed, which is a 10MB connection opposed to current 6MB.  The new TLS interface was installed in the central electrical room due to distance issues within the building and has not been protected with backup power.  A small UPS will be purchased for the device to maintain the Internet connection during central site power outages.

·         Long overdue items from 2002 were purged, there were approximately 9,000 items.

·         Sent RFP’s to several vendors for PC Reservation/Print Management software; Pharos, Comprise Technologies, Cybrarian and Conway Office Products. Demos will be scheduled in the near future.

·         Michael Blake asked Martha about our proxy server.  She explained what it is and how it works.

 

Roger Brisson asked about EBSCO records in the database.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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February 16, 2006

 

CONFIDENTIALITY AND PRIVACY POLICY REVISION:

Sue Koronowski explained the policy is presented to the Membership for discussion.  Executive Board will review and make recommendation to the Membership for a vote at a later meeting.  Sue has been receiving emails from directors with suggestions.  Many libraries use NOBLE’s policy as their local policy.

·         Nadine Mitchell stated that digital surveillance cameras are going to be used beginning in July at Lynn library.  Cameras will be installed in the public areas, parking lots, etc.  The system will be tied into and can be monitored at the police station.  There was a discussion as to if this should be included in NOBLE’s policy.  It was concluded it should not because this is a decision that is being done at the local level and does not affect all NOBLE libraries.

·         Michael Blake asked for clarification of the policy that discusses “releasing to third-party”.  He stated when there are lost items they send the patrons name, and item with title to their Bursar’s Office for collection.  Sue stated once the item is overdue or lost, then the information can be released.

·         Sharon Gilley had two points for discussion.  The first being the policy doesn’t govern patron use of computers in the library.  Ron explained it depends how libraries keep track of when patrons use the PC’s.  If they use sign up sheets, then it’s a library issue.  If NOBLE has system software that tracks when patrons use library PC’s, then it’s a NOBLE issue.  Also there is only one IP address that goes to the library for all the PC’s on NOBLE system.  Therefore there would be no way of pinpointing a specific PC if an issue should arise. A question arose regarding when a patron logs in with patron id card is that information saved on our system or vendor databases.  Martha explained it is a quick transaction to validate the patron then is gone. 

The second point Sharon brought up is she is not comfortable with the part of policy that states “no records will be released to law enforcement with a subpoena or warrant unless attorney is consulted.” Her feeling is if there is a serious threat or someone in danger she is not comfortable with having to wait to consult with an attorney.

Lorraine Jackson stated there have been situations she consulted with attorney about her decision not to release information.

Ruth Urell stated Reading does not release information about minors with their own cards to anyone.

Brian Courtemanche commented as a private institution they may have a different perspective or chain of command then a public library as to what action they need to take.  If approached by law enforcement he would contact administration first.

Linda Shea stated she can not release any information, whether it’s NOBLE related or not, without consulting first.

The general consensus was most libraries will not release information to law enforcement, with a warrant, without consulting a higher authority or attorney of their municipality or institution.

Sue encouraged directors to continue to send emails with comments.  The final policy will be presented at next Members meeting for vote.

 

Members of the Corporation Meeting                                                                             Page 4

February 16, 2006

 

 

DELIVERY ISSUES:

Lorraine Jackson commented that when library staff sends complaints to NMRLS they are forwarding the message to the delivery company, therefore identifying the person who the complaint came from.  She has asked them not to forward the message.  The discussion continued. 

Some of the issues that libraries are experiencing are:

·         Items in transit 2-3 weeks and not getting delivered on a timely basis.

·         When deliveries are made, drivers are not taking pick ups because not enough room in vans.  This creates a space problem for libraries because they are storing anywhere from 6-14 bins waiting to be picked up.

·         No consistent or regular deliveries.  Libraries won’t get any deliveries one day then get many bins with items from previous weeks.

·         When bins are picked up they are brought back to the warehouse for sorting.  Would be more efficient if sorting can be done at time of pick up, therefore items could be delivered while on route.

 

As a result of these issues, not only is resource sharing being affected, but patrons as well.  In some cases if the item is at a nearby library, staff is telling patrons if they don’t want to wait they will get the item quicker if they go to the library themselves.  This ultimately is doing a disservice to the patron.

 

Ron passed around a handout with a chart showing NOBLE Items in Transit since last August.  The trend since mid-January has been on a steady increase.

 

Barbara Lachance, who is on NMRLS Executive Board, took notes and vowed to bring these issues to the NMRLS meeting that afternoon.

 

ADJOURNMENT:  Mary Rose Quinn made a motion to adjourn.  Michael Blake seconded the motion.  The meeting adjourned at 12:30.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

 

Secretary Pro Tem